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Gas will play a substantial part in the coming decades in enabling substantial near-term carbon emission reductions. Natural gas[ds_preview] is widely regarded as a bridge to a low-carbon future. For the maritime industry, gas could be a viable alternative to heavy fuel oil which will be phased out according to IMO within the next ten years. Gas has the potential to reduce dependence on other fossil fuels with heavier carbon impacts.

SOLAS only permits Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) as fuel only for LNG gas carriers. In early 2000, the small Norwegian ferry GLUTRA was the first vessel operating on LNG and not being an LNG gas carrier.

Nowadays, a number of ferries and also other ships like offshore supply vessels are operating on LNG. Based on the positive experiences with the first vessels operating on gas as fuel, Norway proposed to develop a Code for gas as ship fuel to IMO in 2004. The Marine Safety Committee (MSC) of IMO decided to open the way for gas as ship fuel and to give the industry the possibility to gain experiences with this kind of fuel as soon as possible. IMO subcommittee Bulk-Liquids and Gases (BLG) has been given the task to develop this Code.

It became obvious that a formal Code which will be part of SOLAS and should cover a number of gases other than LNG would need time to be built up. For this reason it was decided to develop Interim Guidelines for the use of natural gas in combustion engines as a first step on the way to a general Code for gas as ship fuel. As result of this work MSC adopted the »Interim Guidelines on Safety for Natural Gas-Fuelled Installations in Ships Engine« as MSC Resolution 285(86) in May 2009.

These Guidelines are referred to as state of art by the 2010 SOLAS which came into force in June 2010. Other than a Code these guidelines are not mandatory but form the basis for the administrations to approve natural gas fuelled vessels.

Together with MSC.285(86) adoption IMO started the work on a general Code for gas as ship fuel with a target completion date in 2012. This Code is intended to come into force with the SOLAS revision of 2014 as a part of SOLAS and will set the world wide conditions for gas fuelled vessels.

The first BLG Working Group on development of the IGF-Code met during the 14th session of BLG (BLG-14) in London. A correspondence group for the development of the IGF-Code was set up by BLG for preparing the draft of the Code for BLG-15. The BLG-15 meeting will be held in February 2011.

Until the so called IGF-Code (International Gas as ship Fuel-Code) will enter into force the interim guidelines as given in MSC.285(86) will be the basis for design of ships using natural gas as fuel. These guidelines are not mandatory for the flag states as an IMO Code is but as they represent state of the art they are widely accepted as design basis by flag states. Governments can and obviously will apply the Interim Guidelines to gas-fuelled ships other than those covered by the International Gas Carrier Code (IGC-Code).

GL participated in the development of the IGF Interim Guidelines very actively from the beginning by contributing to the IMO correspondence groups and setting up additional research activities. The experience from Liquefied Gas Carrier classification, IGC-Code development and recent revision, former research work on cryogenic liquefied gases e.g. liquefied hydrogen are the technical background for setting rules in this area. Also the experiences since 2003 with projects related to certification of vessels running fuel cell systems with hydrogen compressed to 340 bar give valuable technical experience.

On the basis of MSC.285(86) GL published the »Guidelines for the Use of Gas as Fuel for Ships« (GL Rules VI-3-1) which came into force 1 May 2010. Meeting the rapidly increasing interest on gas as ship fuel GL gives technical support in interpretation of MSC.285(86) to clients and is preparing a supporting technical document which assists the user in applying the new technology and the new regulations. The GL activities for gas as ship fuel and cargo are coordinated by Dr. Gerd Würsig at GL Head Office in Hamburg (e-mail: Gastechnology@GL-Group.com).

IMO is actively supporting the international shipping industry by providing regulations which are flexible and forward looking to reduce the environmental impact of shipping.

Gerd-Michael Würsig